They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Friday, September 21, 2012

Ellen Booraem's "Small Persons with Wings"

Teen fantasy writer Ellen Booraem lives in coastal Maine with artist Robert Shillady, in a house they built with their own hands. She was an editor for weekly newspapers before quitting her job to write The Unnameables, her first fantasy for young teens.

My second middle-grade fantasy, Small Persons with Wings, features a snarky, smart, and weighty girl named Mellie, who discovers that her family has a thousand-year-old relationship with the equally snarky Small Persons with Wings (who hate being called “fairies”). The perfect Mellie would be Ariel Winter, who plays the younger sister in Modern Family—she’s nailed the snark factor, although she’d have to put on a few pounds. Her partner in crime, the scrawny and freckled Timmo, could be Dawson Dunbar, a kid I found online who’s done a bunch of short films.

Mellie’s best friends among the Small Persons are Fidius and Durindana, who also require attitude. James McAvoy would be a perfect Fidius, and Christina Ricci could pull off Durindana without even breathing hard.

As to the older generation: I’d see Charlize Theron as Gigi Kramer, the evil and spike-heeled real estate agent/plumbing inspector. Robert Duvall would be amazing as Grand-père (again with the snark factor), as would Melissa McCarthy (of the television show Mike & Molly) as Mellie’s magnificent mother, Nick. Mellie’s father, Roly, is the only one of the characters whom I visualized in real life as I was writing: John Hodgman, from the get-go.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin